Mayor Eddie Perez rewrote history Monday night in his state of the city address at Hartford City Hall. He eliminated from existence his arrest and criminal prosecution on bribery charges, and he erased any talk of a crisis of confidence in city government.

 

But the bigger revisionist coup was Perez reworking the chronology of the Nineteenth century. The Mayor told the assembled standing room only crowd in council chambers that Abraham Lincoln was president in 1809.

 

"Two hundred years ago, President Lincoln said, "I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him,'" Perez said in closing his annual address.

 

In the next sentence, Perez quoted the "We are the ones we've been waiting for" mantra of President Obama, who has done much to cultivate a resurgence of interest in the Lincoln administration.

 

After the speech, which highlighted financial aid to art projects, mayoral press aide Sarah Barr said that she wasn't sure off the top of her head when Lincoln was president, but she said, he was born 200 years ago. He was, in 1809.

 

Eight out of eight city council members correctly identified Lincoln's term of office as stretching from 1861 to 1865. Had I interviewed Councilman Ken Kennedy, an attorney, I am certain nine out of nine councilmen would have correctly named the years Lincoln served as President.

 

It's not like Lincoln Financial hasn't spent a decent amount of time and money reminding the city of Lincoln's existence, what with all the great scuplture work on Riverfront Recapture. And it's not like the Wadsworth Atheneum doesn't have a great Lincoln art exhibit going on right now, either.

 

But precision with facts and figures have never been a strong point of the Perez administration. And that truism played itself out in his state of the city address.

 

He didn't mention tax increases in the body of the speech, but afterwards, for the assembled media gaggle, Perez promised a small tax increase.

 

"There is no way that Hartford will not have a tax increase," Perez said.

 

This appears to be different than the half-mill tax increase he proposed in his speech that would create a $1.5 million fund to stem foreclosures of struggling city homeowners.

 

Perez refused to discuss his legal bills, both private and public, but promised in the next day, he would unveil a plan to cut excessive executive salaries in city government.

 

"In the next 48 hours, we hope to make an announcement about that," Perez said, but he kept up his sleeve who would take pay cuts.

 

City Councilman Luis Cotto indicated that Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno has agreed to a small pay cut, symbolic as it is, and perhaps Perez should follow in those footsteps.

 

"Mayor Sarno took a voluntary cut, and he is to be lauded, and possibly replicated," Cotto said. "I won't get into how much it should be cut."

 

Other City Councilors were like Cotto, and refused to speculate about the size of salary cuts for bloated administrative salaries.

 

"I think they're overdue," said City Councilman Pedro Segarra. As for tax increases, Segarra warned that small meant a minimum of 10 percent in this economy.

 

"If he's making the proposal, it's up for discussion," said City Councilman Jim Boucher.

 

A short furlough of five to ten days would be appropriate, said City Councilman Matt Ritter. "I would guess a reduction of three and half percent to five percent," he said. "I know they are looking at reducing the salaries of non-union managers."

 

Other Democrats weren't marching to the Mayor's tune. "[Perez] is paid appropriately for his job," Democratic Town Committee Chairman Sean Arenas said.

 

Nor were councilors interested in Mayor Perez's talk of a tax increase.

 

"I don't want any tax increase," said Council President Cal Torres.

 

Republican councilor Veronica Airey-Wilson promised to fight any increase. "The Mayor is entitled to submit his budget. I'd like to see no tax increase."

 

She also said Perez was right to eliminate talk of his arrest.

 

"It is not relevant," Airey-Wilson said of the arrest. "There is no crisis of confidence in city government."

 

Councilwoman rJo Winch agreed. "I don't think that is the state of the city," she said. "It is a total separate issue. I think if people are going to lack his confidence, they should determine if they have the same confidence as every other mayor in this city in the past 40 years."

 

Councilman Segarra put it more succinctly: "I was trying to determine if this was the state of the city or the state of Eddie Perez."

 

And in the strange state of Eddie Perez, contractors giving free work to the Mayor for political access is not bribery, and Abraham Lincoln was president in 1809.

Perez Rewrites History...